White House press secretary Jay Carney isn't technically a member of the Obama campaign, but he didn't quite resist the bait when a reporter asked him in today's gaggle about that tax-friendly report Mitt Romney gave to S&P:

Q Did he have any thoughts on Mitt Romney’s approach toward S&P reported today? And also, any words about Iowa tonight?

MR. CARNEY: Well, I haven’t spoken to him about those two subjects. I did note with some interest that report that you mentioned. Look, I think — speaking not for the President, but I think in general, that what I’m curious about is whether or not anyone participating in the debate tonight will have any concrete proposals for growing the economy and creating jobs that aren’t retread ideas that didn’t work in the past. I mean, one of the — going back to what the President is doing today, the investments that this administration made to help undergird an advanced battery market in this country that we can be highly competitive in is a concrete step that has resulted in a growing segment of the economy and the creation of real jobs. And that’s how America is going to win the future. That’s how America is going to be globally competitive. It’s not — we’ve tried a lot of ideas in the past, including just giving very large tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, and that didn’t work out so well.

"Speaking not for the president" is an interesting phrase, given that Carney's job description is to speak for the president.